Ryan Blaney wins dramatic Atlanta NASCAR Cup race as Bubba Wallace penalized

Ryan Blaney won a sensational overtime finish at EchoPark Speedway in a NASCAR Cup race that did not end until nearly 2am local time.

Blaney and Carson Hocevar were battling side-by-side for the race win, while Bubba Wallace threw it under them to make it three-wide in the fight for the checkered flag.

Exiting Turn 4, Blaney had the push from Christopher Bell and surged ahead of both Hocevar and Wallace at the finish line.

This is Blaney's second victory of the 2026 season, and the 19th of his Cup career. He also won the race from pole position.

Unfortunately for Wallace, he did not get to keep the runner-up spot. NASCAR penalized Wallace after ruling that he advanced his position by going below the yellow line during the three-wide fight for the win. As a result, he was dropped from second all the way down to 29th -- the final car on the lead lap.

Watch: Blaney prevails with EchoPark win in wild OT

Bell will be credited with second, Hocevar third, Ty Gibbs fourth, and Erik Jones fifth.

Shane van Gisbergen finished sixth in another impressive oval run for the three-time Supercars champion, with Austin Dillon seventh, Tyler Reddick eighth, Joey Logano ninth, and Chris Buescher tenth.

“It was definitely, honestly, a pretty awesome night," said Blaney, who earned Ford its 750th NASCAR Cup win. "I mean, having a really fast car and sitting on the pole, winning both stages and leading a ton of laps and just in a position to win the race. You never know how these things are gonna end, honestly. There are a couple of things I probably could have done better, but we were able to stick around and just how the last couple laps played out we were able to get the lead back and just barely hold on. It’s a pretty cool day when you have weekends like that. You can’t ask for a better weekend – sit on the pole, sweeps the stages, win the race. That’s a dream weekend right there. These guys are great. They brought a rocket ship and it was nice that we were able to close it out.”

Stage 1

At the start of the race, Keselowski brushed the wall and quickly fell through the field, eventually losing a lap.

The field got very spread out as cars struggled for grip, with the Penske trio firmly in control.

Reddick, Larson, and Hocevar all tried to break up the Penske party, and Larson eventually did as he took advantage of Reddick battling Cindric to pass them both.

He quickly dispatched Logano as well, and nearly cleared Blaney for the lead. Blaney held firm, and as the stage progressed, it was suddenly Reddick threatening him for the lead after starting way back in 31st.

In lapped traffic, Reddick made one last run at Blaney at the end of the stage, but the No. 12 remained in command.

Blaney won Stage 1 over Reddick, Larson, Logano, Cindric, Hocevar, A. Dillon, Briscoe, Elliott, and Wallace.

The free pass went to Preece, putting him back on the lead lap.

Stage 2

Reddick and Larson won the race off pit road over Blaney, and these three continued to battle for the lead once the green flag flew.

Drivers were getting far more aggressive, leading several to touch the wall. Hocevar, Larson, and Herbst were among those who had a close encounter with the outside wall early in the run.

Undeterred, Hocevar charged forward, and took over the race lead for a bit. However, Blaney prevailed on the longer run and reclaimed control of the race.

Unfortunately, storms arrived after 108 of 260 laps of racing, forcing an immediate red flag with lightning visible just outside the track. This yellow also put Chastain back on the lead lap via the free pass.

The stoppage lasted over three hours, and the green flag did not wave again until midnight, local time. Drivers also opted to pit, with several different strategies unfolding. Blaney and Logano went fuel-only, while Wallace and Reddick led another group with two-tire calls, and then Jones leading the rest on four fresh tires from tenth on back.

There was constant action, but once again, Penske held onto the front of the field with Blaney and Logano.

Late in the stage, Hocevar abruptly slowed with an issue. On the final lap of the stage, Wallace was inside the top five when he spun off the nose of Gibbs right as the green-and-white checkered flag.

Blaney went on to win Stage 2, ahead of Reddick, Logano, Cindric, Suarez, Gibbs, Bell, Jones, Hamlin, and Van Gisbergen.

Keselowski got the free pass during the stage break.

Stage 3

Gibbs and Cindric won the race off pit road, and suddenly it was a very different look to the front of the field as Blaney (and others) had to wait on fuel.

The JGR cars were suddenly the ones setting the pace now, with Gibbs leading Bell despite nonstop action right behind them.

Right on the edge of the fuel window, Allmendinger slid into the door of McDowell and spun sideways, causing a caution. Smith secured the free pass under this caution period.

Bell then won the race off pit road with a two-tire call, restarting side-by-side with larson. Larson.

What followed was nonstop battling for the race lead. The main players were Wallace, Blaney, Larson, Reddick, and Bell. There were several sketchy moments throughout the pack, including when Chastain made a four-wide pass, and the cars above him narrowly held onto their twitching cars -- including his teammate, Van Gisbergen.

With 30 laps to go, Blaney actually got into the wall after Wallace blocked him in the battle for the race lead. At the same time, the caution flew for Allmendinger, who blew a tire and slammed the wall. Blaney was not happy and drove up alongside his friend in the No. 23 under caution to show his displeasure.

Chastain in eighth was one of the first to pit for tires, with a lot of cars behind him following him down into pit lane.

Blaney took the lead on the restart, despite complaining about a vibration. Hocevar moved up to second, as Larson spun sideways from inside the top 10 due to a stack-up ahead of him.

On the restart, it was more of the same as Hocevar, Blaney, and Wallace traded the lead constantly. 

With six laps to go, Larson squeezed up into Hamlin at the exit of Turn 2, sending Larson crashing into both the outside and inside walls. Briscoe spun in avoidance, crashing as well while collecting both Hill and Herbst. Bowman and T. Dillon got a small piece of it as well.

Hocevar was in the lead for an overtime restart, and started reciting '(I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight' by Cutting Crew over the radio ahead of the critical restart.

While Blaney initially got clear with a push from Wallace, Hocevar fought back, and had a decent lead at the white flag. Van Gisbergen made a late charge and was three-wide for second, but it was Blaney who had the momentum for the final 1.5 miles.

As Blaney and Hocevar raced side-by-side, Wallace made it three-wide on the bottom as Smith wrecked in the back.

Hocevar had zero drafting help exiting Turn 4, and got swallowed up as Blaney pulled ahead and took the win for Team Penske.

RACE

All Stats

 

Cla	Driver	#		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Interval	Pits	Points	Retirement
1	R. Blaney Team Penske	12		Ford	263	3:14'25.386		7
2	C. Bell Joe Gibbs Racing	20		Toyota	263	+0.068 3:14'25.454	0.068	8
3	C. Hocevar Spire Motorsports	77		Chevrolet	263	+0.107 3:14'25.493	0.039	8
4	T. Gibbs Joe Gibbs Racing	54		Toyota	263	+0.134 3:14'25.520	0.027	8
5	E. Jones Legacy Motor Club	43		Toyota	263	+0.216 3:14'25.602	0.082	8
6	S. van Gisbergen TrackHouse Racing	97		Chevrolet	263	+0.351 3:14'25.737	0.135	9
7	A. Dillon Richard Childress Racing	3		Chevrolet	263	+0.384 3:14'25.770	0.033	9
8	T. Reddick 23XI Racing	45		Toyota	263	+0.415 3:14'25.801	0.031	8
9	J. Logano Team Penske	22		Ford	263	+0.424 3:14'25.810	0.009	9
10	C. Buescher RFK Racing	17		Ford	263	+0.473 3:14'25.859	0.049	9
11	R. Chastain TrackHouse Racing	1		Chevrolet	263	+0.596 3:14'25.982	0.123	10
12	D. Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing	11		Toyota	263	+0.633 3:14'26.019	0.037	8
13	C. Elliott Hendrick Motorsports	9		Chevrolet	263	+0.689 3:14'26.075	0.056	9
14	A. Cindric Team Penske	2		Ford	263	+0.743 3:14'26.129	0.054	9
15	M. McDowell Spire Motorsports	71		Chevrolet	263	+0.879 3:14'26.265	0.136	8
16	W. Byron Hendrick Motorsports	24		Chevrolet	263	+1.039 3:14'26.425	0.160	9
17	C. Custer Haas Factory Team	41		Chevrolet	263	+1.403 3:14'26.789	0.364	9
18	J. Nemechek Legacy Motor Club	42		Toyota	263	+1.455 3:14'26.841	0.052	9
19	T. Gilliland Front Row Motorsports	34		Ford	263	+1.471 3:14'26.857	0.016	14
20	T. Dillon Kaulig Racing	10		Chevrolet	263	+1.476 3:14'26.862	0.005	9
21	D. Suarez Spire Motorsports	7		Chevrolet	263	+1.528 3:14'26.914	0.052	10
22	A. Bowman Hendrick Motorsports	48		Chevrolet	263	+1.539 3:14'26.925	0.011	9
23	R. Stenhouse Jr Hyak Motorsports	47		Chevrolet	263	+1.668 3:14'27.054	0.129	10
24	R. Preece RFK Racing	60		Ford	263	+1.788 3:14'27.174	0.120	10
25	J. Berry Wood Brothers Racing	21		Ford	263	+2.105 3:14'27.491	0.317	10
26	B. Keselowski RFK Racing	6		Ford	263	+2.341 3:14'27.727	0.236	10
27	N. Gragson Front Row Motorsports	4		Ford	263	+2.458 3:14'27.844	0.117	10
28	C. Zilisch TrackHouse Racing	88		Chevrolet	263	+2.586 3:14'27.972	0.128	10
29	B. Wallace 23XI Racing	23		Toyota	263	+2.587 3:14'27.973	0.001	8
30	Z. Smith Front Row Motorsports	38		Ford	262	+1 Lap 3:13'55.595	1 Lap	11
31	A. Hill Richard Childress Racing	33		Chevrolet	261	+2 Laps 3:13'43.186	1 Lap	12
32	C. Ware Rick Ware Racing	51		Chevrolet	259	+4 Laps 3:14'34.414	2 Laps	8
33	C. Finchum Garage 66	66		Ford	259	+4 Laps 3:14'35.433	1.019	9
34	K. Larson Hendrick Motorsports	5		Chevrolet	258	+5 Laps 3:15'04.565	1 Lap	12
35	R. Herbst 23XI Racing	35		Toyota	255	+8 Laps 3:04'00.821	3 Laps	10
36	C. Briscoe Joe Gibbs Racing	19		Toyota	254	+9 Laps 3:03'12.485	1 Lap	9
37	A. Allmendinger Kaulig Racing	16		Chevrolet	230	+33 Laps 2:41'01.766	24 Laps	11
38	B. McLeod Live Fast Motorsports	78		Chevrolet	105	+158 Laps 1:04'06.331	125 Laps	4
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